State officials brainstorm problems and solutions to EEE virus

Gary Walts / The Post-StandardDonna Wilcox (left) and Julie Wilcox talk about how Julie's 5-year-old daughter, Maggie, died from the EEE virus and their desire to raise awareness of the disease, which is carried by mosquitoes and can be prevented.

Oswego, N.Y. -- New laws and policies regarding mosquito control are likely in New York next year, one senator said after a two-hour meeting outlining the state's challenges in decreasing the numbers of insects that can carry deadly viruses.

"This is a regional issue now," Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Oswegatchie, said this afternoon after hearing from state and scientific experts about the prevalence of Eastern equine encephalitis in Central New York this year.

Ritchie and Sen. Kemp Hannon, R-Garden City, hosted the roundtable to see whether and how state health and environmental officials were revamping mosquito control policies after EEE killed Maggie Wilcox, a 4-year-old New Haven girl, on Aug. 14.

The Wilcox family, which has been pressuring state and local officials for answers about controlling the virus, said they found today's session promising.

Provided photoMaggie Wilcox, 4, of New Haven, in Oswego County, died on Aug. 14 at Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital after being infected by a mosquito carrying the Eastern equine encephalitis virus.

EEE is a very rare virus that typically kills five to 10 people nationwide each year. Central New York has had three deaths in the past three years, including Maggie. She became infected about the same time health officials were finding EEE-laden mosquitoes in routine tests last summer. Usually, there is more lag time between finding the virus in mosquitoes and finding it in horses or humans.

"We really need to look at what happened in 2011," said Dr. Guthrie Birkhead, the state's deputy health commissioner for public health. He said the state already was putting together extra guidance for the four counties most affected by EEE: Onondaga, Oneida, Madison and Oswego.

Ritchie, the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said it's too early to say what legislation she or Hannon, chair of the Senate Health Committee, might propose to strengthen New York's approach to mosquito control.

Some ideas include more funding for EEE-testing in horses, an animal that also can die from the virus and can serve as a warning to humans. Counties should also work more closely together to coordinate aerial insecticide sprayings that cross government jurisdictions, some at the meeting said. Right now, counties decide individually about whether to spray or not.

Other ideas might not require new laws but rather a new look at past practices. Health officials, for example, could use texting and email alerts to let people know that the virus is in their area. Right now, most officials rely on press releases, their own websites, and traditional news media to help notify residents.

Though rare, EEE can be found in some other animals, including dogs, emus and pheasants. People only contract the virus from a mosquito, and it cannot be transmitted from animal to animal or person to person.

Ritchie also said she was shocked to learn there is an EEE vaccine publicly available for horses, though not for humans. When she asked why, Birkhead said he wasn't sure, but that other health experts were concerned as well. He said the lack of supply might be because pharmaceutical companies don't find it a profitable enterprise.

Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida, said the state should look at doing more to make the vaccine's production more attractive to the private drug industry,

"We need to do whatever it takes," said Valesky, whose district includes part of Cicero Swamp in Onondaga County, a traditional home to mosquitoes.

State Roundtable on West Nile and EEEState senators and health officials held a roundtable meeting at the Oswego City School District Office on Thursday morning to discuss mosquito control in order to combat West Nile and EEE in Central New York. The meeting was attended by family members of 4-year old Maggie Wilcox of New Haven, who died this Summer from the EEE virus.